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Tennessee Basketball to play in Players Era Festival in Las Vegas the next three years

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 10 hours•

GrantRamey

Players Era Festival
Players Era Festival

Tennessee Basketball will take part in the Players Era Festival at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas each of the next three seasons. The Vols are the 18th team to join the 2025 field for the week-long tournament, which provides programs with guaranteed NIL money.

The 2025 field so far consists of Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Creighton, Gonzaga, Houston, Iowa State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State, St. Joe’s, St. John’s, Syracuse and Texas A&M. The tournament will use a group-play format given the number of teams involved next season.

Duke, South Carolina, Texas and UCLA are currently in the women’s field for the 2025 Players Era Festival. 

Players Era Festival paid $9 million in NIL this season

Oregon beat Alabama to win the inaugural men’s Players Era championship in November. The eight-team 2024 field included Creighton, San Diego State, Houston, Texas A&M, Rutgers and Notre Dame, along with the Ducks and Crimson Tide.

The Players Era website describes the tournament as “a week-long celebration of college basketball, taking place Thanksgiving week in Las Vegas, featuring elite players, teams and coaches. In addition, an innovative format designed to invigorate early season tournament competition before the start of conference play, there will also be financial education programs, and multiple on-call NIL opportunities for players. 

The tournament “is committed to providing $9 million in NIL to college basketball players in 2024 for their engagement in activities separate and apart from competition, and more than $50 million in NIL over the next three years. For these NIL payments, players will perform services and activities fully compliant with current NCAA regulations.”

Vols have won in-season tournament titles twice in last three years

Tennessee has won an in-season tournament title two of the last three seasons. The Vols this season beat Virginia and Baylor on back-to-back nights in The Bahamas to win the four-team Baha Mar Championship. 

In November 2022 Tennessee beat Butler, USC and Kansas to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The Vols last season finished fourth in the Maui Invitational, beating Syracuse in the first round before back-to-back losses to Purdue and Kansas.

In November 2021 Tennessee split games at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, losing to Villanova then beating North Carolina.

The Vols played in the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida in 2019-20 and they have made two trips to New York, playing in the Barclays Center Classic in 2015, the first year of the Rick Barnes era, and in the NIT Season Tip-Off in 2018.

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